Jakarta. Chinese anode battery material giant BTR launched Wednesday its manufacturing plant in Central Java’s Kendal, putting Indonesia a step closer to achieving its electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem dream.

The facility is capable of producing 80,000 tons of anode materials meant for lithium-ion batteries every year. This is enough to support the production of 1.5 million EVs. BTR is planning to proceed to the second phase of the project later this year. Once the second phase of construction finishes, the factory’s capacity will double the annual production capacity to 160,000 tons.

“So that means 3 million EVs every year. That’s a huge number, so we should be able to be the biggest supplier of batteries or the EV itself. … I’m pleased to see that our grand plan of creating a robust and integrated EV ecosystem is starting to take shape piece by piece,” President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said at the launch ceremony.

The EV ecosystem plan is part of Indonesia's strategy of making the most out of its natural resources. But Jokowi revealed that the freshly launched plant would use some imported materials such as African natural graphites in the production. He added: "But we are using the artificial graphite produced by Pertamina's Riau refinery."

BTR is scheduled to launch the second phase of the project in the fourth quarter of this year. It is set to reach completion next March. The doubled production capacity will put Indonesia as the world’s second-largest battery anode producer, according to senior minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan.

The Kendal plant follows the signing of a deal signed by BTR and the Indonesian government last October in Beijing. Under this agreement, BTR will jointly invest with Singapore’s Stellar Investment in the construction of battery material plants in both Kendal and Central Sulawesi’s Morowali Industrial Park. The first phase of the project involves a $478 million investment, according to BTR at the time. A promotional video played during Wednesday’s launch ceremony showed that the total investment for the project amounted to $777 million. 

It took only 10 months for BTR to complete the Kendal facility.

China has become one of the largest foreign direct investors in Indonesia. According to the Investment Ministry, China invested $3.9 billion in Indonesia throughout the first half of 2024. The country was only second to Singapore, whose investments totaled $8.9 billion.